A Blount County commissioner has proposed a resolution related to same-sex “marriage” that has been met with scorn and ridicule by various news outlets and perhaps even by a number of Tennesseans. Why, I can even think of a few folks who might be embarrassed by it. But before we deride this commissioner, we might consider the venerated American politician that we will also scorn in the process.

The resolution is described on the commission’s docket as a “Resolution condemning judicial tyranny and petitioning God’s mercy.” Perhaps if the commissioner had not petitioned for God’s mercy, the resolution would not have made the news. Lots of reasonable people and even mockers of God believe that the Supreme Court overstepped its bounds when it ruled in June that states should allow same-sex couples to marry.

But the following paragraphs are what brought the derision and caught the news of the real atheists and the practical atheists among us:

“We adopt this Resolution before God that He pass us by in His Coming Wrath and not destroy our County as He did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities. As the Passover Lamb was a means of salvation to the ancient Children of Israel, so we stand upon the safety of the Lamb of God to save us . . .

“We adopt this Resolution begging His favor in light of the fact that we have been forced to comply and recognize that the State of Tennessee, like so many other God-fearing States, MAY have fallen prey to a lawless judiciary in legalizing what God and the Bible expressly forbids.”1

When you consider how many people in Tennessee profess to be Christians, it is shocking that many would really think anything strange about the idea that God judges nations for their wickedness, that flouting God’s clear design for marriage might incur His judgment, and that there is wisdom in seeking His mercy by means of humble contrition.

But we really don’t like to think that God still does that kind of thing. However, the fact that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and never changes does put a crimp in that kind of thinking.

So whoever on the Blount County Commission considers himself or herself a God-fearing person might not want to dismiss the resolution out of hand. But they ought to also realize that if they support the resolution, they are in some pretty heady political company—Abraham Lincoln, to be precise.

In his proclamation dated March 30, 1863, Lincoln penned these similar words:

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon;

“We know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, . . .

“It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”2

A few elected officials willing to align themselves more with Mr. Lincoln’s views regarding God and civil government than those of the liberals in the mainstream media might not be such a bad idea. And those who might fuss at them for doing so should maybe take their complaints up with Mr. Lincoln.
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